


Lovestruck

by StellarWing



Series: Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Character Study, Introspection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 22:11:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12874098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellarWing/pseuds/StellarWing
Summary: Kravitz had always been good at moderation in all things but love. Not even death could take that from him.





	Lovestruck

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing in the world can convince me that Kravitz isn't a useless romantic sap.

Kravitz was good at moderation in all things but love. When he fell it was hard and fast, and in his short life his heart had been broken enough times to make just about anyone jaded and bitter. But no matter how many times he was burned he couldn't bring himself to stop loving, to make himself cold and distant. He loved to love, and to show that love, and though it hurt like hell when he was rejected it wasn't enough to make it not worth trying again.

This was part of the reason the Raven Queen had chosen him as her emissary, after his life was cut short. It took a very particular personality to handle the role of her bounty hunter; the conviction to hunt and persecute criminals, but compassion enough to never be turned cold by it. Because while capturing delinquent souls was an important part of the job, just as important was the guiding of those who had become lost. There were spirits who had committed no crimes, but by virtue of an especially traumatic or confusing death were not able to make the journey to the Astral Plane on their own. These lost souls needed to be handled with patience and understanding, lest they be pushed to flee from their fate.

Kravitz was not forced into her service; a deal was offered for him to accept or refuse. And to the Raven Queen's amusement and delight he had dared barter with her on the terms of his employment. He did not ask for much, but one of his conditions was that he still be allowed to love, to pursue romance and friendships if the desire struck him. And she agreed, on the condition it did not interfere with his sacred duty.

Kravitz was good at his job, but he quickly learned that the living had far less of a desire to be in his company than he had to be in theirs. He was Death. He was the Grim Reaper. Even those who did not outright fear or despise him did not enjoy socializing with a constant reminder of their own mortality. A few of the braver folk would schmooze with him in hopes that they could get some sort of deal when their time came, but their interests were shallow. They wanted to know Death. No one had any interest in getting to know Kravitz.

That realization had hurt more than a hundred heartbreaks.

Yet still, he did not hate or resent them. He had been alive once, had felt the acute fear of mortality. It had been foolish of him to think such a deep, primal fear could be easily pushed aside. He gradually pulled back, no longer forcing himself into the lives of the living, appearing only to offer aid or mete out justice.

Instead, he would speak with the lost spirits he shepherded home. Many of them were grateful, and would regale him with stories of their lives and the people they left behind. He enjoyed their company, and many of them he could see himself befriending, but if Kravitz was speaking with them it meant they were ready to pass on and join with the spirits in the lake. Occasionally a spirit would receive permission to wait outside the lake until a particular loved one passed on, but ultimately they too moved on. They were but passers-by in each other’s stories, a footnote to a much grander tale. Kravitz was rarely alone, but he was lonely.

Eventually he gained a certainty about his unlife that came from centuries of fulfilling his task. While he saw a fair amount of strange happenings, humanoids were always generally the same, and his long existence gave him a wide perspective that few others could achieve. What seemed a catastrophic event to the living was only a temporary uptick in activity for him, quickly evening out back to the norm. What appeared impossibly strange to those with short lives was a passing curiosity for him. In the end, everything would be the same. In the end, all would come to rest in the Raven Queen's domain.

It wasn't especially strange to chase one necromancer and encounter three more; they often crowded together like rats in a sewer, cast into the corners of the world by more civilized society. It _was_ unusual to discover that one of them was stuffing stolen souls into robots, and that the other three appeared genuinely unable to recall dying eighty-four times between them. And it was both unusual and humiliating to need to be rescued by them when he failed his duty to keep a watchful eye on the Eternal Stockade. But ultimately, it was just a very strange ship passing in the night.

Even when they died again, many times, along with an entire town full of people, Kravitz still had no reason to believe the encounter would be especially life-changing. He would go ask what was going on, report back to the Raven Queen, and wait for the ebb and flow of time to bring existence back to normalcy.

He had expected all three of them to return to the dormitory together, no doubt wanting to relax after their excursion defying the laws of life and death, and was surprised when Taako came alone. He felt a little guilty about it; he had meant to sit down and speak with them more or less as equals, not corner the most physically frail of the three when he was alone and exhausted. But he was there and he needed answers, so he did everything in his power to make himself as unthreatening as possible, showing that he could be calm and careful and patient, presenting himself in every aspect as Kravitz and not the Grim Reaper.

Taako, for his part, was exceptionally good at pretending not to be afraid, and speaking as casually as he would with a visitor who was not imbued with the blessing of a goddess. Kravitz was certain that he _was_ afraid, had seen so much fear directed his way that he could recognize it in any form. But he appreciated being spoken to as a person rather than a threat, and by the end of their conversation Taako seemed several degrees more relaxed than at the start.

It wasn't until their next meeting that Kravitz's world began to shift. He felt a familiar pull in his undead heart, a feeling so long dormant he almost failed to recognize it. It wasn't love, not yet, but it was a precursor, a warning and a promise. A sign that he had a choice to make, to walk away and let the spark fizzle out, or stand his ground and welcome the coming torrent.

His first instinct was to run, to maintain the stability he had achieved, to remain focused on his job. But then he thought of himself long ago, remembered that newly-deceased young man ready to bargain with the goddess of death itself to hold onto his right to fall hopelessly in love, and he wondered when he had changed. Had that part of him been lost to time? Had the years finally begun to harden his lonely heart?

But no, they hadn't, because here was that feeling again, asking to be let free. And here before him was a beautiful man with sparkling eyes who no longer feared him, who opened up to him and treated him like someone worth spending time with and said he had felt something. And before he could second-guess himself Kravitz was saying he had a lovely time, was asking if he would see him again, and at that moment he knew there was no turning back.

And _oh_ , he had forgotten how good it felt to let himself fall, to revel in the warmth and light of someone else, to open up his heart and leave it at their mercy. It felt so much brighter, so much sharper than it had before, and Kravitz wondered if it was because he had gone so long without or because there was something there that hadn't been before. Whatever it was it felt _good_ , and he let himself get taken by it, let the current guide him.

There was a part of him that was waiting for it to end, for the trap to snap shut on his heart and leave him broken, the inevitable crash that came after the dizzying fall. But it never came, and instead he found himself being given a heart as open and fragile as his own, and he would do anything to keep it safe.

And Kravitz learned that the only thing better than falling in love was catching someone who had fallen in return.


End file.
